Direct dating of human skeletal material from Ganj Dareh, Early Neolithic of the Iranian Zagros

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 12 (2017) 165–172

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Direct dating of human skeletal material from Ganj Dareh, Early Neolithic of the Iranian Zagros Christopher Meiklejohn a,⁎, Deborah C. Merrett b, David Reich c,d,e, Ron Pinhasi f a

Department of Anthropology, University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, MB R3B 2E9, Canada Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6, Canada Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA d Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA e Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA f School of Archaeology and Earth Institute, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland b c

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history: Received 31 October 2016 Received in revised form 23 January 2017 Accepted 24 January 2017 Available online xxxx Keywords: 14C dates Human skeletal remains Ganj Dareh Neolithic Central Zagros Iran

a b s t r a c t We present the first set of radiocarbon dates derived from human skeletal material from Ganj Dareh, Iran. These new dates fully overlap with those on goat bone samples published by Zeder and Hesse (2000) and confirm the finding of the latter source that occupation of the site occurred within ca 200–300 years after 9000 bp (~ 10,100 cal. BP). In so doing we confirm the absence of a hiatus between the lower two levels (E and D), an idea derived from the initial dating of the site. We also provide the first full review of the 23 radiocarbon dates from the site published prior to the work of Zeder and Hesse (2000). Examination of the full date sequence emphasizes the complexity of the site stratigraphy and tight clustering of the dates from all levels, thereby clarifying the difficulty that the excavator had in separating levels. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction to the site Tepe Ganj Dareh (Persian ‫ )ﺗـپﻪ گﻨـﺞ ﺩﺭﻩ‬is an Early Neolithic mound (tepe) lying at 1400 m in the Gamas-Ab Valley in the province of Bakhtan (formerly Kermanshah) in southwestern Iran. Peaks of the High Zagros mountain range surround the valley in places reaching over 2000 m. The site is ca 1 km from the village of Qeysevand (Gheiswand), 10 km west of Harsin, and 37 km east-southeast of the city of Kermanshah (Fig. 1). The site is a pure Early Neolithic mound except for minor Islamic period intrusions into upper levels. It was discovered in 1965 by Philip E.L. Smith during survey work for Early Neolithic sites in the Iranian Zagros, part of a joint effort to find sites by the University of Toronto and the Royal Ontario Museum (Young and Smith, 1966). Excavation of the site by Smith, by then at the Université de Montréal, was over four seasons from 1967 to 1974 working with the Archaeological Service of Iran (Smith, 1967, 1968, 1970, 1972a, 1972b, 1974, 1975, 1976). The relatively small site covers ca 0.1 ha, 40 m in diameter and a maximum depth of 7–8 m. There are five occupation levels, A through E from the top, with the base lying on virgin soil. Basal level E largely lacked ⁎ Corresponding author at: Department of Anthropology, University of Winnipeg, 515 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg, MB R3B 2E9, Canada E-mail addresses: [email protected] (C. Meiklejohn), [email protected] (D.C. Merrett), [email protected] (D. Reich), [email protected] (R. Pinhasi).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2017.01.036 2352-409X/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

structures but overlying levels showed a complex set of mud-brick buildings. Among early reported discoveries was the presence in level D of software pottery from quite large vessels (Smith, 1968, 1972a; Yelon et al., 1992). A partial fire in level D aided preservation of both pottery and architecture. Apparent absence of pottery in overlying level C suggested that the earliest pottery was fired accidentally. By the end of the last season roughly 20 to 25% of the site had been excavated. A distinction existed between lowest level E, on virgin soil, with firepits as the only identified structures, and overlying levels D through A with complex mud-brick architecture based on use of plano-convex bricks (Smith, 1976, 1978, 1983, 1990). Initial radiocarbon dates (see Section 2) indicated a 10th millennium bp age,1 a period that had not previously yielded material of this age in Iran. Initial studies of the site's economy suggested a pastoral society with herding of goats and very limited evidence for use of cereal grains (Hesse, 1978; van Zeist et al., 1984). Hesse concluded that the limited number of sheep bones recovered had a harvest profile of adult animals, almost certainly hunted as wild fauna. In contrast the goat remains showed a shift from harvesting adults to an economy focusing on juveniles. Hesse suggested

1 This paper uses the convention that raw, uncalibrated 14C dates are denoted as bp, calibrated dates as cal. BP. We consistently use before present as opposed to before Christ (bc) or before Christian Era (bce) except in the calibration tables, where we give both systems. The only dates reported here as uncalibrated bp are the raw 14C values presented with dates and laboratory numbers in the body of the text.

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Fig. 1. Map of location of selected early sites in the Central Zagros of Iran and Iraq. 1. Ganj Dareh, 2. Abdul Hosein, 3. Sheikh-e Abad, 4. Jarmo, 5. Zawi Chemi; and the modern city of Kermanshah. Inset shows Central Zagros location within the Near East.

was that there was “a convincing case for the presence of husbanded though morphologically wild goats … at Ganj Dareh” (1978: 315), a position extended and supported by Zeder and Hesse (2000: 2257), who concluded that “the distinctive profile of young male slaughter and prolonged female survivorship documented here marks the goats of Ganj Dareh as a managed, and therefore domesticated, population.” Human remains were initially recovered in level D in 1969 (Smith, 1970), with further finds in 1971 and 1974, the majority from level D. A small number of recent burials were also identified in uppermost level A. By the end of 1974 a total of 41 burials had been identified in situ (Smith, 1972b, 1975). Subsequent analysis of the collection has shown that this figure was, at least in part, the number of identified features containing human remains (some burials were recognized in the field as containing multiple individuals). Further analysis has resulted in several numbers being given over time. The first post-excavation figure, 49 individuals (Meiklejohn et al., 1980), was updated to 69 in Meiklejohn et al. (1992). The latter number was divided into 52 individuals identified during excavation and a further 17 found during the faunal analysis of Brian Hesse. Further work, especially by one of us (DCM), has raised the total MNI to 116 (Merrett, 2004: 190), 65 adults and 51 sub-adults. This, in turn, is divided into 56 skeletons, each with 4 or more skeletal elements, 40 isolated bone finds, 19 isolated teeth and one combination of isolated bones and teeth. Separation of individuals involved a combination of “age-at-death, occupation level, excavation area, and excavation unit” (Merrett, 2004: 190). This makes the Ganj Dareh human skeletal collection the largest from an Iranian Early Neolithic context. 2. History of 14C dating at Ganj Dareh through Zeder/Hesse The radiocarbon dating of the Early or Aceramic Neolithic in the Iran/ Iraq Zagros/Piedmont zone has a checkered history. Early work at several sites provided dates that were internally incongruent, the classic example being Jarmo in the Iraqi Piedmont where de facto acceptance of the initial dates suggested an occupation of ca 6000 years for the site whereas Robert Braidwood, the excavator, could state that “the site's

inventory suggests only a single phase of occupation” (Braidwood, 1983: 537). Ganj Dareh provides another case study, though less extreme, with Smith and Young (1983: 146) stating that “(a)n honest struggle with sometimes contradictory radiocarbon dates is of course firmly within the Braidwoodian tradition of scholarship”. When the first dates for the Fertile Crescent were published the chronology of the Neolithic was only understood in a rudimentary fashion. Questions in play included whether the transition to the Neolithic was a terminal Pleistocene or early Holocene event, complicated by debate over the relationship between sedentary settlement and the transition to food production. In this light initial work began at Ganj Dareh less than a decade after publication of Braidwood and Howe's magisterial Prehistoric Investigations in Iraqi Kurdistan (Braidwood and Howe, 1960). Radiocarbon dating of Ganj Dareh has two clear phases, those published from 1967 to 1990 and those of Zeder and Hesse (2000). Only after the last did a clear picture emerge, which our results confirm and extend. 2.1. Phase 1 of 14C dating (1967 to 1990) There are five sets of dates in the first phase: 1967, 1970, 1973, 1990, and one unpublished set first included in publication in 1987. The dates range from the oldest 10,400 ± 150 bp (GaK-807) to the most recent 8110 ± 70 bp (SI-4734), giving the site occupation as slightly more than two millennia (Table 1). These and all other early 14C dates are listed in Table 1 in chronological order and Table 2 by stratigraphic level. Calibration uses Calib 6.10. Dates are also shown as probability plots generated in OxCal 4.2.4 by sample set, level, and material sampled (Fig. 2). The first set, with two dates, suggested a considerable break between the lowest level, E, and the four levels above. In 1990 Philip Smith was still forced to admit that “(u)nfortunately it is still not possible to say how much time elapsed between level E (non-architectural and no sign of goat control) to level D when there is elaborate solid architecture and the controlled exploitation of wild goats” (comment in Hedges et al., 1990: 231). The absence of an occupation hiatus would

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Table 1 1967–1990 dates organized by descending age showing the range of 14C dates obtained from the site. Date (14C year)

Lab number

Site level

8110 ± 70 8140 ± 70 8340 ± 80 8450 ± 70 8460 ± 70 8485 ± 70 8525 ± 70 8535 ± 70 8570 ± 310 8590 ± 70 8630 ± 200 8640 ± 90 8650 ± 70 8690 ± 110 8840 ± 110 8850 ± 100 8890 ± 100 8910 ± 170 8950 ± 70 8970 ± 100 9010 ± 110 9240 ± 200 10,400 ± 150

SI-4734 SI-4739 SI-925 SI-4736 SI-4735 SI-4738 SI-4733 SI-4740 SI-922 SI-4732 SI-923 SI-924 SI-4737 OxA-2102 OxA-2099 OxA-2101 P-1486 GaK-994 SI-4741 P-1484 OxA-2100 P-1485 GaK-807

B D E C B D B D E A E E C E B D B D/E D D C/D C E

Calibrated dates cal. BP 1σ

cal. BP 2σ

ca. lBC 1σ

cal. BC 2σ

9240–8820 9240–9000 9470–9270 9530–9430 9530–9440 9540–9460 9540–9470 9550–9470 10,150–9260 9620–9500 10,120–9440 9730–9530 9680–9540 9890–9540 10,150–9740 10,150–9780 10,190–9820 10,220–9770 10,210–9930 10,230–9920 10,260–9920 10,710–10,200 12,530–12,060

9280–8880 9400–8780 9520–9130 9540–9300 9540–9300 9560–9300 9660–9410 9670–9430 10,380–8730 9740–9470 10,220–9140 9910–9480 9890–9520 10,150–9490 10,200–9560 10,200–9610 10,230–9670 10,400–9540 10,240–9790 10,290–9700 10,480–9740 11,120–9900 12,620–11,720

7290–6870 7290–7050 7520–7320 7580–7480 7580–7490 7590–7510 7600–7520 7600–7520 8200–7310 7680–7550 8170–7490 7780–7580 7730–7590 7940–7590 8200–7790 8200–7830 8240–7870 8270–7820 8260–7980 8280–7970 8310–7970 8760–8250 10,580–10,110

7330–6830 7450–6830 7570–7180 7590–7350 7600–7360 7610–7360 7710–7460 7720–7480 8430–6780 7790–7520 8270–7200 7960–7530 7940–7570 8200–7540 8250–7610 8250–7660 8280–7720 8450–7600 8290–7840 8340–7750 8530–7790 9170–7960 10,670–9770

only be sorted out a decade later by Zeder and Hesse (2000). Additionally, further analysis of these goat remains has substantially changed the interpretation of the earliest Ganj Dareh subsistence. Goat exploitation is also now considered to be controlled in all levels of the site including Level E (Zeder, 2001), modifying the earlier suggestion by Hesse (1978) that the bones in level E were still wild. The first dates were samples of charcoal mixed with ash and earth, collected in 1965 (Kigoshi, 1967), with level E at 10,400 ± 150 bp

Date sets two and three (Fig. 2) were also on charcoal. Set two, with three dates from the initial 1967 field season (Lawn, 1970), provided somewhat inconsistent results from levels B, C and D (Table 2, Fig. 2), with a range from 9240 ± 200 (P-1485) to 8890 ± 100 bp (P-1486) though not in disagreement with the Gakushuin dates.2 The oldest was from level C (P-1485), though this date was seen as less reliable due to the small sample size (Lawn, 1970). Set three, collected in 1971, gave four dates from level E (Stuckenrath and Mielke, 1973),

Table 2 1967–1990 dates organized by descending level. Raw radiocarbon dates are designated by 14C years while calibrated dates (BP and BC) are given at ±1σ and 2σ standard deviations. Level

A B

C

C/D D

D/E E

Date (14C year)

8590 ± 70 8110 ± 70 8460 ± 70 8525 ± 70 8840 ± 110 8890 ± 100 8450 ± 70 8650 ± 70 9240 ± 200 9010 ± 110 8140 ± 70 8485 ± 70 8535 ± 70 8850 ± 100 8950 ± 70 8970 ± 100 8910 ± 170 8340 ± 80 8570 ± 310 8630 ± 200 8640 ± 90 8690 ± 110 10,400 ± 150

Lab number

SI-4732 SI-4734 SI-4735 SI-4733 OxA-2099 P-1486 SI-4736 SI-4737 P-1485 OxA-2100 SI-4739 SI-4738 SI-4740 OxA-2101 SI-4741 P-1484 GaK-994 SI-925 SI-922 SI-923 SI-924 OxA-2102 GaK-807

Calibrated dates cal. BP 1σ

cal. BP 2σ

cal. BC 1σ

cal. BC 2σ

9620–9500 9240–8820 9530–9440 9540–9470 10,150–9740 10,190–9820 9530–9430 9680–9540 10,710–10,200 10,260–9920 9240–9000 9540–9460 9550–9470 10,150–9780 10,210–9930 10,230–9920 10,220–9770 9470–9270 10,150–9260 10,120–9440 9730–9530 9890–9540 12,530–12,060

9470–9740 9280–8880 9540–9300 9660–9410 10,200–9560 10,230–9670 9540–9300 9890–9520 11,120–9900 10,480–9740 9400–8780 9560–9300 9670–9430 10,200–9610 10,240–9790 10,290–9700 10,400–9540 9520–9130 10,380–8730 10,220–9140 9910–9480 10,150–9490 12,620–11,720

7550–7680 7290–6870 7580–7490 7600–7520 8200–7790 8240–7870 7580–7480 7730–7590 8760–8250 8310–7970 7290–7050 7590–7510 7600–7520 8200–7830 8260–7980 8280–7970 8270–7820 7520–7320 8200–7310 8170–7490 7780–7580 7940–7590 10,580–10,110

7520–7790 7330–6830 7600–7360 7710–7460 8250–7610 8280–7720 7590–7350 7940–7570 9170–7960 8530–7790 7450–6830 7610–7360 7720–7480 8250–7660 8290–7840 8340–7750 8450–7600 7570–7180 8430–6780 8270–7200 7960–7530 8200–7540 10,670–9770

(GaK-807) and with the younger, ca 1 m above the first, at 8910 ± 170 bp (GaK-994). This set the stage for the 33 year discussion of a possible occupation hiatus between Levels E and D (Tables 1 and 2, Fig. 2).

2 Note that these dates and error margins are rounded to the nearest decade and therefore differ marginally from those in the original cited publications.

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Fig. 2. Probability plots of Phase 1 calibrated dates (BP) by data set (i.e. date of sampling), stratigraphic level, and material sampled showing inconsistencies within and between variables.

ranging from 8640 ± 90 (SI-924) to 8340 ± 80 bp (SI-925). The youngest was from a level below the oldest of the set and all were younger than previous dates for levels A through D.

The fourth set, from Oxford, the only set with published δ13C values, comprises AMS dates on barley seeds for levels E through B (Hedges et al., 1990). The range from 9010 ± 110 (OxA-2100) to 8690 ± 110 bp

Table 3 Zeder and Hesse (2000) dates from goat collagen organized by age with calibrated dates at 1σ and 2σ ranges BP and BC. Date (14C year)

8720 8780 8780 8830 8840 8840 8870 8900 8920 8930 8940 8940

± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ±

50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 60 50 50

Lab number

B-108241 B-108238 B-108240 B-108247 B-108244 B-108249 B-108246 B-108248 B-108243 B-108239 B-108242 B-108245

Site level

B A B E D E E E C B B D

Calibrated dates cal. BP 1σ

cal. BP 2σ

cal. BC 1σ

cal. BC 2σ

9740–9560 9900–9700 9900–9700 10,120–9740 10,130–9770 10,130–9770 10,150–9900 10,170–9920 10,180–9930 10,190–9930 10,200–9940 10,200–9940

9890–9550 10,120–9560 10,120–9560 10,160–9700 10,160–9700 10,160–9700 10,180–9740 10,200–9790 10,220–9890 10,230–9800 10,220–9910 10,220–9910

7790–7610 7950–7750 7950–7750 8170–7790 8180–7820 8180–7820 8200–7960 8220–7970 8230–7980 8240–7980 8250–7990 8250–7990

7940–7600 8180–7610 8180–7610 8210–7750 8210–7760 8210–7760 8230–7800 8250–7840 8270–7940 8280–7850 8270–7960 8270–7960

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Table 4 Zeder and Hesse (2000) dates from goat bone collagen organized by level with calibrated dates at 1σ and 2σ ranges cal. BP and cal. BC. Site level

A B

C D E

Date (14C year)

8780 8720 8780 8930 8940 8920 8840 8940 8830 8840 8870 8900

± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ±

Lab number

50 50 50 60 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50

Calibrated dates

B-108238 B-108241 B-108240 B-108239 B-108242 B-108243 B-108244 B-108245 B-108247 B-108249 B-108246 B-108248

cal. BP 1σ

cal. BP 2σ

cal. BC 1σ

cal. BC 2σ

9900–9700 9740–9560 9900–9700 10,190–9930 10,200–9940 10,180–9930 10,130–9770 10,200–9940 10,120–9740 10,130–9770 10,150–9900 10,170–9920

10,120–9560 9890–9550 10,120–9560 10,230–9800 10,220–9910 10,220–9890 10,160–9700 10,220–9910 10,160–9700 10,160–9700 10,180–9740 10,200–9790

7950–7750 7790–7610 7950–7750 8240–7980 8250–7990 8230–7980 8180–7820 8250–7990 8170–7790 8180–7820 8200–7960 8220–7970

8180–7610 7940–7600 8180–7610 8280–7850 8270–7960 8270–7940 8210–7760 8270–7960 8210–7750 8210–7760 8230–7800 8250–7840

(OxA-2102) covers a similar range to those on charcoal, but again the sequence is problematic with the level E date the youngest and with effectively similar dates for levels B and D (Table 2, Fig. 2). Given the previous dates Smith suggested that the levels may be more compressed than previously thought (in Hedges et al., 1990). The 13 dates noted above are those usually discussed, published both by the originating laboratories and by the excavator. However, there is a final or fifth set of dates on unknown material, published by neither the laboratory nor the excavator. These ten are from the Smithsonian laboratory, published as part of an overview of Near Eastern sites by Hole (1987) and in two further date compendia (Voigt and Dyson, 1992; Hours et al., 1994). To our knowledge the only other source for these dates is the University of Köln 14C radiocarbon database (http://context-database.uni-koeln.de/). They range from 8950 ± 70 (SI-4741) to 8110 ± 70 bp (SI-4734) but, as with previous sets, there is a lack of internal consistency in sequence by level. A quick look at both Table 2 and Fig. 2 shows effectively no relationship between the direct 14C age of a specimen and its level of origin. As an example the average uncalibrated date from levels A and B is 8570 bp (n = 6) while the average for level E is 8575 bp (n = 5) if the probably aberrant GaK-807 is excluded. In other words the top and bottom of the tepe have apparently similar ages despite the fact that the full early date set (±2σ) spans ~ 2300 14C years with all dates included, 1130 years with GaK-807 excluded. An alternate explanation for the older date (GaK-807) can also be considered; that sample GaK-807 was obtained from basal sediments underlying the site thus contributing to the appearance of an occupation hiatus. A detailed explanation for the inconsistency of the dates is not attempted here. One possibility is that some charcoal dates are composed in whole, or in part, from old wood (for a discussion of the problem see e.g. Schiffer, 1986). A second possible factor involves sample pretreatment differences between laboratories over a period of ~ 20 years (see e.g. Brock et al., 2010) together with practices that included the use of bulk charcoal. The issue of whether to apply Bayesian analysis to the full sample also arose. We feel that this is not advisable for several reasons centred in the theoretical assumptions of the approach (see e.g. Bayliss, 2015; Steier and Rom, 2000; Weniger et al., 2015). For the full series, issues include presence of samples identified as bulk charcoal, absence of Table 5 Ganj Dareh individuals dated.

GD-13A GD-22 GD-39 GD-40 GD-41 GD-1150

Level

Age (years)

Sex

C D D D D A–D

30–50 N50 1.5–2.5 18–30 16–19 18–30

Female Male Female Male Male Female

associated 13C values, and the fact that sample identification is entirely based on association by level as opposed to actual stratigraphic seriation. In addition, we feel that the sample is simply too small, especially given the admonishment of Weniger et al. (2015) that a small sample consists of any number b 100 dates. Following on the last paragraph and the need for an assured stratigraphic ordering of dates in Bayesian analysis, we stress the problem of identifying stratigraphic sequence in a site built on the superposition of mud-brick houses. As discussed by Kramer (1982) the walls of modern mud-brick houses in the Near and Middle East tend to slump and become filled with debris, or are filled with debris and then slump, thus contributing to the mixing of levels. As a tepe is effectively a hill as it grows, it can be expected that houses occupied contemporaneously may be on different horizontal levels. 2.2. Phase 2 of 14C dating The solution to the conundrum discussed above is seen in the results obtained by Zeder and Hesse (2000) as part of a study of the Ganj Dareh goat fauna. By sampling human-manipulated faunal remains rather than charcoal the twelve dates obtained on goat bone collagen (see Tables 3 and 4, Fig. 4) provide a very different picture than that of the earlier dating work. Though there are still overlaps between ranges for different levels the total for the series is 220 14C years, 160 if the youngest date is removed and 100 if only the oldest eight dates are considered. Zeder and Hesse (2000: 2256) suggest site duration of “perhaps no more than 100 to 200 years”, clearly solving the previous dating issue. Rather than a site with lower level E a millennium older than overlying levels D through A, the total occupation lasts ~ 200– 300 years and possibly less. Occupation of the site lies between ~ 10,170 and 9700 cal. BP at 2σ. 3. The new direct dates from human remains With the date range for the site placed at the boundary between the tenth and eleventh millennia cal. BP the outstanding chronological question is to verify the age of the human skeletal materials from the site, there being no direct dates on human bone from the site to now. This opportunity has come as an adjunct to recently published aDNA results from the collection (Lazaridis et al., 2016; Gallego-Llorente et al., 2016). We obtained direct AMS dates from two laboratories, Beta and Poznan, with results from six individuals, four adults, one older adolescent and a child (see Tables 5 and 6, Fig. 3). Of these, two adults and the child were among those from whom aDNA results were obtained and reported by Lazaridis et al. (2016). In terms of provenance one individual is from level C, four from level D and one in an unclear situation, identified as levels A–D. The results below also indicate that in future analyses all individuals identified as A-D or its equivalent (e.g. A–C),

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Table 6 First 14C dates from Ganj Dareh human skeletal remains. Date (14C year)

8780 ± 50 8800 ± 50 8850 ± 50 8860 ± 50 9000 ± 40 330 ± 30

Lab number

Poz-81,100 Poz-81,109 Poz-81,114 Beta-432,800 Beta-436,170 Beta-432,801

Individual

GD-13A GD-39 GD-40 GD-22 GD-41 GD-1150

Calibrated dates cal. BP 1σ

cal. BP 2σ

cal. BC 1σ

cal. BC 2σ

9900–9700 10,110–9700 10,150–9800 10,160–9890 10,230–10,180 450–320

10,120–9560 10,150–9630 10,170–9740 10,170–9740 10,240–9940 470–310

7950–7750 8160–7750 8200–7850 8210–7940 8280–8230 CE 1500–1630

8180–7610 8200–7680 8220–7790 8220–7790 8290–7990 CE 1480–1640

dates for Ganj Dareh of 10,240–9940 to 10,120–9560 cal. BP at 2σ (for location relative to Ganj Dareh see Fig. 1). Although dated from seeds, charred wood and animal bone, two other sites have also been identified that are contemporary with Ganj Dareh within the Central Zagros: Sheihk-e Abad (10,180–9680 cal. BP) and Jani (10,190–9680 cal. BP) (Matthews et al., 2013). Addition of the new dates from human remains from Ganj Dareh greatly contributes to fleshing out our knowledge of human occupation and neolithisation ca. 10,000 yr cal. BP in the Central Zagros of Iran. The third point is simply to note two elements related to the Islamic intrusive burial. The first is to indicate that this date has been published in the supplementary data associated with Lazaridis et al. (2016). The

Fig. 3. Petrous portion of right temporal bone of GD-41 sampled for 14C dating. Scale bar = 1 cm.

possibly including most individuals from levels A and B, should be treated as of unclear or unknown age until 14C dates can be obtained. Five individuals are unambiguously dated to the Early Neolithic, the sixth an Islamic period intrusion dated to between the late 15th and early 17th centuries AD. In addition, there is almost complete agreement between the five Neolithic dates and those of Zeder and Hesse (2000) (Fig. 4). Our date range in 14C years is 9000–8780 bp, compared to 8940–8720 for Zeder and Hesse. Averages are identical, 8858 and 8857.5 bp! In calibrated terms the average dates at 2σ are also identical at 9945 cal. BP. Both series point to an age for the site in the late 11th or early 10th millennia cal. BP (Table 6). Three further points need to be made. The first is that our dates are more tightly distributed stratigraphically than are those of Zeder and Hesse (2000), the latter having material from all five levels (Figs. 4 and 5). Our dates are largely from level D, with one from level C above. We have not dated any material from level E or from levels A and B, other than the Islamic intrusion. However, although there is material identified as D/E, our total sample contains almost no material unambiguously recovered from level E except two adults (one an isolated bone) and three subadults, two of them isolated tooth and bone finds. The second is to place the dates (all cited here are 2σ ranges) from the Ganj Dareh human remains within a regional context where, at this critical time in the neolithisation of Iran, there are few sites with which to compare. One, within 100 km of Ganj Dareh in the same river system, is Abdul Hosein, where two dates on human remains are identical at 10,150 to 9710 cal. BP (Broushaki et al., 2016, SM: 43), c.f.

3 Broushaki et al. (2016) give the dates as ranges cal. BC non-rounded and without the error range noted. Raw 14C dates are not provided. We have rounded these dates and transcribed them as cal. BP to agree with the remainder of the text.

Fig. 4. Probability plots of Phase 2 dates by level showing consistency of calibrated radiocarbon dates between values obtained from human bone of this study and those previously determined from goat collagen (Zeder and Hesse, 2000).

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Fig. 5. Probability plots of all dates by level showing consistency of calibrated radiocarbon dates between values obtained from human bone of this study and those previously determined from goat collagen1, barley2, charcoal3, and unknown material4. 1Zeder and Hesse (2000). 2Hedges et al. (1990). 3Kigoshi (1967); Lawn (1970); Stuckenrath and Mielke (1973). 4Hole (1987); Hours et al. (1994); Voigt and Dyson (1992).

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second is to note that the Islamic burial showed a very different aDNA profile to the other individuals assayed by Lazaridis et al. (2016) and Gallego-Llorente et al. (2016), with a pattern expected in modern populations from the Zagros region. In contrast the Neolithic individuals showed a previously unreported aDNA profile separating them from other sample populations in the Neolithic and modern Fertile Crescent (Lazaridis et al., 2016; Gallego-Llorente et al., 2016). 4. Conclusions We report the first direct radiocarbon dates on human skeletal material from Ganj Dareh in the Iranian Zagros, excavated between 1967 and 1974. The results show strong internal consistency and overlap almost totally with those previously obtained from goat bones by Zeder and Hesse (2000). In so doing they confirm what was previously an assumption, that the goat and human remains at the site are contemporary. They also confirm that the humans living and buried at the site were in direct archaeological association with the human control of goats inferred through analysis of the goat skeletal remains (Zeder, 2001; Zeder and Hesse, 2000). The direct radiocarbon dates from human remains also confirm that occupation of the site was over a relatively short period of 200 to 300 years from the late 11th to early 10th millennia cal. BP, and also lay to rest the early suggestion in the literature that there was a major occupational hiatus between the two oldest stratigraphic levels, D and E. Conflicts of interest The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. Acknowledgements Deborah C. Merrett acknowledges support for her analysis of the Ganj Dareh skeletal series from her Doctoral (752-2001-1733) and Post-Doctoral (756-2004-0299) Fellowships from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Ron Pinhasi acknowledges support by ERC starting grant ADNABIOARC (263441) and David Reich acknowledges funding as an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. David Reich also thanks Matthew Ferry and Olivia Cheronet for help with preparation of samples for radiocarbon dating. The authors thank the two reviewers of the paper for their constructive comments which greatly enhanced this manuscript. References Bayliss, A., 2015. Quality in Bayesian chronological models in archaeology. World Archaeol. 47 (4), 677–700. Braidwood, R.J., 1983. Jarmo chronology. In: Braidwood, L.S., Braidwood, R.J., Howe, B., Reed, C.A., Watson, P.J. (Eds.), Prehistoric Archeology Along the Zagros Flanks. Oriental Institute, Chicago, pp. 537–540 (University of Chicago Oriental Institute Publications 105). Braidwood, R.J., Howe, B., 1960. Prehistoric Investigations in Iraqi Kurdistan. Oriental Institute, Chicago (Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization 31). Brock, F., Higham, T., Ditchfield, P., Bronk Ramsey, C., 2010. Current pretreatment methods for AMS radiocarbon dating at the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (ORAU). Radiocarbon 52 (1), 103–112. Broushaki, F., Thomas, M.G., Link, V., López, S., van Dorp, L., Kirsanow, K., Hofmanová, Z., Diekmann, Y., Cassidy, L.M., Díez-del-Molino, D., Kousathanas, A., Sell, C., Robson, J.K., Martiniano, R., Blöcher, J., Scheu, A., Kreutzer, S., Bollongino, R., Bobo, D., Davudi, H., Munoz, O., Currat, M., Abdi, K., Biglari, F., Craig, O.E.G., Bradley, K.G., Shennan, S., Veeramah, K.R., Mashkour, M., Wegmann, D., Hellenthal, G., Burger, J., 2016. Early Neolithic genomes from the eastern Fertile Crescent. Science 353 (6298):499–503. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aaf7943 (S.M.). Gallego-Llorente, M., Connell, S., Jones, E.R., Merrett, D.C., Jeon, Y., Eriksson, A., Siska, V., Gamba, C., Meiklejohn, C., Beyer, R., Jeon, S., Cho, Y.S., Hofreiter, M., Bhak, J., Manica, A., Pinhasi, R., 2016. The genetics of an early Neolithic pastoralist from the Zagros, Iran. Nat. Sci. Rep. 6:1–7. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep31326 (31326). Hedges, R.E.M., Housley, R.A., Bronk, C.R., van Klinken, G.J., 1990. Radiocarbon dates from the Oxford AMS system: archaeometry datelist 11. Archaeometry 32 (2), 211–237. Hesse, B.C., 1978. Evidence for Husbandry From the Early Neolithic Site of Ganj Dareh in Western Iran. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation. Department of Anthropology, Columbia University.

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